1. Field
This disclosure relates to a system and method for correlating user call response to electronic messages. More specifically, this disclosure relates to a system and method for correlating user voice call response to electronic messages received by users over a computer network.
2. Background
The World Wide Web has become a major platform not only for information exchange, entertainment, and communications, but for the promotion and distribution of products and services. Suppliers reach consumers directly by creating their own web sites. However, often suppliers actually get the consumer's attention from the sending of electronic messages. This may include, for example, the placement of advertisements (e.g., banner ads) on a page relevant to the consumer and connected to the advertiser's product; through consumer search, where the product shows up in the results; or through consumer search, where the product appears as an ad that while not directly relevant to what the consumer is searching for, the search engine determines the consumer would be interested in such a product or service. Once an advertisement catches the consumer's eye, the consumer may click through the advertisement to go to the advertiser's web site.
Technologies for collecting advertising content and optimizing search results to present appropriate advertisements to consumers are well known to those knowledgeable in the state-of-the-art of search technology.
Search-based advertising works well for personal computers and tablet computers with keyboards and relatively large displays. However, for many people, their only access to the Internet is via a mobile phone. The mobile environment is quite different than the personal computer environment. For example, mobile phones have a tiny, hard to use keyboard at best or a 12-key keypad at worst. The literature describes many methods of using mobile technology, such as location, to assist with mobile search.
At the same time the consumer has difficulties using the mobile Internet, many businesses, especially locally-scoped service businesses, have limited or no Internet presence. Without an Internet or more specifically World-Wide Web presence, even if consumers could overcome the limitations of the mobile device and click through on an advertisement, the merchant does not have a Web site or Internet presence for them to click through to.
Even if the merchant has an Internet presence, the nature of their goods or services may be more conducive to a voice conversation. The cost to the consumer for a voice call, if not in direct monetary cost, is substantial compared to Web click through. For example, a user may need to spend both additional time and money for a voice call instead of a Web click through.
While the majority of small businesses may not have an Internet presence, almost all have a telephone. Over forty years ago, the price of a telephone call was relatively expensive and collect calling required operator intervention. In order to overcome a prospective customer's hesitation to call the merchant, the merchant offered to pay for the call. Because a call from a prospect was worth more to the merchant than a regular call, the phone company was able to charge a premium to the merchant for the call. The phone company created a toll-free, 800 number, or, the name at the time, inward-WATS service. It was not uncommon for the cost of an 800 call to be five or more times the cost of a regular call.
Prior to the break-up of AT&T, the billing relationship between the merchant and phone company was simple. All calls originated on the AT&T network and all merchants were AT&T's customers. Thus, AT&T knew when the merchant's customer placed a premium call to the merchant. AT&T knew not to bill the customer, based on the customer dialing an 800 number. AT&T also knew to bill the merchant for the premium call. Lastly, as a subscriber to AT&T's toll free service, the merchant expected a bill from AT&T for the call, at the premium rate.
One of the benefits of using an 800 number is the merchant gets a bill with all of their inbound calls enumerated. Another benefit is the merchant can change the local number the 800 number translates to if they so wish. For example, the merchant could send the 800 number to an interactive voice response (IVR) system to screen the call.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,058,152 teaches how to use an arbitrary direct inward dial (DID) phone number for the purposes of providing confidentiality and anonymity of callers in a classified advertising system. This system uses the DID, which gets delivered to a system controller, to lookup the advertiser's phone number, and to then connect the caller to the advertiser. The commercial embodiment of this system, AdConnect (described in a Fort Lauderdale SunSentinel newspaper article on Aug. 20, 1993 titled New Service For Classified Ads Offered), also enabled the publisher, although not the advertiser, to gather statistics on how many times an advertisement generated calls, how long an ad ran before the item sold, and so on.
Businesses want to be able to advertise one number and use that number for all of their customers' and prospects' interactions with the business. Once a consumer learns the business' phone number, the business does not want them to have to learn a new number. We have considerable experience with this phenomena in the U.S. with respect to area code splits. Whenever there is the potential for businesses to have to change their number, even if only the area code, the comments against the split come quickly.
It was a goal of the '152 patent to hide the actual phone number of the called party. Thus, such DID-based methods for monitoring calls or providing differential billing are far from optimal, as they either require the business to always use the expensive DID or require the business to advertise a different number for direct, non-advertising related calls. Likewise, by definition, an 800 number is not the actual phone number of the called party and thus suffers the same problems.
According to the International Telecommunications Union Telecommunications Sector (ITU—T) in their ITU News article The world in 2010: ICT facts and figures which appear in December, 2010, there are more than 2 billion Internet users, of which almost 1.5 billion connect wirelessly, most using mobile phones. While these phones include Internet connections, it is important to note that these devices are phones first, and Internet devices second.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,873,708 teaches how to use a content server to enable mobile advertising search and to format Internet advertising content appropriate for mobile phone use. This patent also discloses using the system to attach coupons to the offers.
However, in all of these methods of advertising, there is not a direct correlation between the advertisement and purchase. This makes the advertisement of limited value to the merchant. The merchant pays cents or fractions of a cent per advertising impression, but only a small fraction of people viewing the advertisement actually buy the product or service.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,403,905 teaches one method for connecting a consumer's purchase to a mobile advertisement impression. However, the correlation of the purchase to the consumer and the merchant is made by special equipment at the merchant's premises. Moreover, the system does not work if the consumer is not physically at the merchant, such as for an Internet or phone order.
Sitofono in Italy provides a system and service that allows merchants to put click-to-call buttons on their web sites and mobile sites. This service enables merchants to convert more prospects into customers by making it easy for the prospect to simply and easily contact the merchant. This gives the merchant the opportunity to use the compelling mode of interactive sales techniques to close a sale. Moreover, some service providers charge a premium for these calls, as they are sales-related, highly qualified, and with the enhanced likelihood of a sale, merchants are more willing to pay. However, such a service requires the merchant to use a separate number for billing purposes. Such a separate number can be expensive and does not leverage the merchant's existing marketing of their usual phone number.